Is my snag list unreasonable?

Marie said:

Walls and doors which were not vertical were part of my list in a court-case with a builder. The judge's response was to dismiss that complaint as walls being 'off-true' did not interfer with the use of the room. I kid you not! But all the best with it!

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Does not interfere with the use of the room? wtf? Thats rough. The building regs should be updated to include stuff like this. There should be a margin of error - and in excess of this, the builder should be liable to make good bad workmanship.

As expected, the builders are now trying to force the issue through their solicitors - although I didnt expect that to happen quite so quickly.

They have served me with an Order to Complete within 28 days on the basis of a breach of contract. Failure to do so would lead to loss of deposit and an end to the contract.

They have done this even though I called to site on getting word from them that the snags had been completed. When I called to site, the foreman said that just the electrical/plumbing/heating snags had been made good - and he required more time to do the rest!

The only concern I have is the interpretation of what is deemed to be a 'major defect' as only a major defect can prevent the completion of the transaction. This whole thing hangs on whether the crooked walls are interpreted as being a major defect in the eyes of the law ( to me or to anybody else who has seen them, theyre a catastrophy) - the only problem being that its an aesthetic defect as opposed to a structural one.

Anyone got any thoughts on this?

What does your solicitor say?

"

It looks like in order to get more weight behind the issues I've already raised, I will need an engineers report for sure - in order to strengthen my case and put the pressure back on the builders.
A fully fledged engineers report is not within the remit of homesnag.ie though right?

I would be curious to know Fintan - as you deal with this sort of thing on a regular basis...
Is it feasible if i'm determined enough to insist on getting ALL of the snags done on the list?
Taking one case in point - unsquare walls - but not visibly noticeable. What would you expect a builder to do in these circumstances?

Thanks for posting"

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Sorry for the delay in getting back to you, we have our usual rush before Christmas at the moment.

Nothing on your list was unreasonable so I would expect it all to be fixed and the majority of it was cosmetic work that would take only a day or so to fix up. I personally don't think anything on your list would justify an engineers report, its a standard snag list. But

With regard the unsquare walls, to be brutally honest you have no hope of getting that fixed, especially if it isn’t really obvious.

Block work in general is always un-square, due to it being laid in sections using a string-line.

If you have any more questions that you need a quicker answer too just send me an email at Fintan@homesnag.ie


Regards

Fintan
[FONT=&quot]www.HomeSnag.ie[/FONT]

Thanks for that Fintan.

It seems to be getting sorted. I have finally managed to get a hold of the actual buider (rather than the site foreman) and he has agreed that the workmanship was crap and they would tear it down and redo it. This only came about after a bit of a row.

So waiting back and holding firm has paid dividends. He did mention that some people had signed off without any snag list! When you hear stuff like this, is it any wonder we struggle to get satisfaction from builders.

@extopia - I had supplied my solicitor with enough ammo to show that I was in compliance - so that she could fend off the 'order to complete'. In the meantime I sorted stuff out with the builder directly as outlined above. I havnt spoken to the solicitor since - but it looks like stuff will be sorted before christmas anyways. Meeting the builder later this week on site. Fingers crossed as now that the issue with the wall is sorted, I want to complete the purchase more than the solicitors/builders.

serotoninsid said:

Thanks for that Fintan.

It seems to be getting sorted. I have finally managed to get a hold of the actual buider (rather than the site foreman) and he has agreed that the workmanship was crap and they would tear it down and redo it. This only came about after a bit of a row.

So waiting back and holding firm has paid dividends. He did mention that some people had signed off without any snag list! When you hear stuff like this, is it any wonder we struggle to get satisfaction from builders.

@extopia - I had supplied my solicitor with enough ammo to show that I was in compliance - so that she could fend off the 'order to complete'. In the meantime I sorted stuff out with the builder directly as outlined above. I havnt spoken to the solicitor since - but it looks like stuff will be sorted before christmas anyways. Meeting the builder later this week on site. Fingers crossed as now that the issue with the wall is sorted, I want to complete the purchase more than the solicitors/builders.

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Thats fantastic news well done!